Thursday, September 21, 2017

There are times for rules and times for forgetting the rules. Craft is always something to master, even if only to ignore.

Despite my repeated warnings about adhering too obsessively to “rules,”
it’s still true that some of my editing clients have craft trip-ups that make
for tough reading. I see clumsy grammar
gremlins, over qualifying, unnecessary attribution to POV characters, cart-before-the-horse
descriptions, etc. They can be distracting and thus detracting.

None-the-less, your voice might lead you to break rules,

In my opinion, great
voice walks right up to the edge of troubled writing… That cliff and its risk make up the writing sweet
spot.

Write brave but keep clarity in mind. And always be careful to protect your
voice.

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Relying not on recollections rendered imprecise by the passage of time, or secondhand reports which inevitably lose context, A Manifest Spirit instead presents observations from the group historian, base chaplain, and the fighter pilots themselves, recorded as they occurred during the conflict. The complex operation of a wartime fighter base, the deep satisfaction of a successful mission, and the heartbreak of waiting for pilots that never returned, are presented with the clarity that can only come from contemporaneous reports.

A Manifest Spirit is a tribute to the officers that gave the 359th Fighter Group its organization and direction, the enlisted men who made it work, and above all the pilots, 121 of whom made the ultimate sacrifice in the pursuit of freedom.

Sunday, February 12, 2017

Sister Folio and her collaborator have published a new book: Misfortune Annie and the Locomotive Reaper. It's a great read! It will be enjoyed by young and older alike. Here's my review I also posted it on Amazon.com. Buy the book. You won't be sorry!

Annie is a tough, smart-as-her-own-whip, old west Tomboy who thinks her biggest challenge is resisting an off-the-reservation Cheyenne suitor. But when lawmen, including mentor Wyatt Earp, think she has what it takes to catch the Locomotive Reaper, she must tug herself over and over from a quicksand of danger while finding the killer equipped with a hydrogen-powered flying rig and multiple ways of killing.

She is forced to work alongside Slokam, “cool as a snow-fed creek,” hater of “wounded bar music,” and not entirely trustable. She faces late night cold that makes one’s “bones feel like they’ll freeze up and snap in two,” informants with tempers like diamondbacks, skull walls, saloon shootouts, and narrow passageways (you MUST read the book to see how Annie deals with claustrophobia using a straw hat). On top of everything else, she must tame a runaway locomotive compliments of our sack headed doom dealer.

The book reads at breakneck speed from the moment Annie is lured into the job then left behind in a none-too-safe place. There’s a head-fights-heart angle and the intriguing question of whether nature will have the final word. I can’t wait until book two’s next adventure. Please, pretty please, Ms. Fogg and Mr. Jackson, I hope to learn where her father is.